1943–
Economist who began with NEP studies and framed the Kosygin-reform debate
The reform stalled, the country entered a period of stagnation, and that stagnation ultimately predetermined the decline of the socialist economy in the USSR.
Yuri Goland is a Russian economist whose work began with the study of the Soviet New Economic Policy (NEP) and monetary reform. After graduating from Moscow State University's physics faculty, he worked for decades in physical-sciences research before turning to economics in the 1990s, focusing on reconstructing the history of NEP-era policy debates. In 2010 he co-authored with Alexander Nekipelov 'The Kosygin Reform: A Missed Chance or a Mirage?', which crystallized the central question of post-Soviet historiography on the reform.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1967Graduated Physics Faculty, Moscow State University
- 1967–1995Researcher, Institute of Physical Problems, USSR/Russian Academy of Sciences
- 1991Published Crises That Destroyed the NEP
- 1995–2002Expert Institute, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
- 2002–2005Institute for International Economic and Political Studies, RAS
- 2005–Leading Researcher, Institute of Economics, RAS
- 2006Published Discussions on Economic Policy in the Years of Monetary Reform 1921–1924
- 2010Co-authored 'The Kosygin Reform: A Missed Chance or a Mirage?' with Nekipelov
Related historical events
NEP-Era Economic Debates and Monetary Stabilization
Goland reconstructed NEP-era monetary policy as a process in which economic debate and political decisions intersected. His 2006 book, Discussions on Economic Policy during the Monetary Reform of 1921–1924, considered the formation of economic policy as a whole, with monetary policy at its center, rather than treating monetary institution-building in isolation. Economic historian Grigory Khanin noted that the book set disputes within the Bolshevik leadership and wider Soviet society against economic and ideological developments, drawing on newspapers, periodicals, archival records, specialist literature, and writings by émigré economists. Khanin said Goland traced the more than six months of debate over introducing the chervonets as a parallel currency in 1922, where most specialists initially opposed the proposal. The book also examined arguments over price controls and the “replacement cost” of fuel, excessive pay for managers of state trusts, and the admission of foreign capital. Rather than presenting only the case for a market economy, Goland also considered the views of Yuri Larin, Yevgeny Preobrazhensky, and Leonty Kritsman, who opposed the NEP.
Goland’s 1998 book, Crises That Destroyed the NEP: Currency Regulation during the NEP, followed the conflict between advocates of monetary stability and those prepared to sacrifice it to accelerate industrialization. According to Khanin’s review, after inflationary pressures appeared in autumn 1925 following an attempted expansion of investment, the government reduced investment for a time, helping to stabilize monetary circulation. In July 1926, however, it gave up maintaining the chervonets’s quotation abroad and defending its exchange rate against foreign currencies. The book also examined, using archival material, the case of economist Lev Volin, who directed secret trading operations financed by the People’s Commissariat of Finance to support the exchange rate. Volin was arrested and shot in spring 1926 on charges of “economic counter-revolution.” Khanin reported Goland’s interpretation that the verdict was intended to discredit Sokolnikov in an intra-party struggle, while questioning that explanation of the prosecution’s motive.